The memories of ‘Andy’ Kao are vivid for Francois Ung and his wife Shally: A great sense of humor. A man who helped them with their Arcadia donut business, and who over time felt like part of their own family, including when they bonded over ballroom dance.
And then came Jan. 21, 2023, when a two-second move during a jive dance saved Shally’s life amid a gunman’s rampage at Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park. Kao made that move, shielding her life, sacrificing his.
“He was in front of Shally. He took the bullet for her,” said Ung on Friday, just days before what will be one year exactly since that day.
It’s the of memory Kao – Mr. Nice, as he was known — and 10 others who died in the shooting that should be permanently memorialized, said Ung.
It’s in the works.
Monterey Park wants to have a permanent memorial honoring the 11 victims of the Star Ballroom Dance Studio shooting to honor the fallen and bring the community closure – but it is still a work in progress, city officials said this week.
After discussion from the City Council at its meeting in September, early stages of planning began, suggesting forming a memorial committee, and requesting staff to research similar memorials and the strategies employed to make it happen.
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With sites of mass shootings increasingly dotting the United States, such memorials have become more common place: San Bernardino, Aurora, Colo., Orlando, Fla., Newtown, Conn. all have memorials where the dead are remembered.
Officials in Las Vegas recently approved a plan to honor the 58 initial victims of the massacre on the Las Vegas Strip in October 2017. In that shooting, a gunman opened fire from a 32nd-floor suite at the Mandalay Bay hotel on a country music festival crowd on the Las Vegas strip, making it the deadliest such shooting in American history. Among the hundreds injured, two people initially survived but died in subsequent…
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